Friday, February 08, 2013

Benghazi-Gate: Where was Obama?

While giving Senate testimony regarding Benghazi on Feb. 7, Sec. of
Defense Leon Panetta said Obama was not present nor did he communicate
with the Sec. of Defense during the Benghazi attack.

Panetta was answering questions from Sen. Kelly Ayotte
(R-NH) when he made it clear he had no communication with Obama outside
the normal, "pre-scheduled" 5 p.m. meeting on September 11.

When asked if Obama at least called to check in as the attack unfolded Panetta said "No."

When asked if anyone from the White House called that night, Panetta said "No."

According to Panetta, the President
trusted that the Sec. of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCOS)
Chairman General Martin Dempsey were aware of what military assets were
and weren't near Benghazi, so he left it "up to us."

Under direct questioning
by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Panetta admitted that he had no
communication with President Obama after their “pre-scheduled” meeting
at 5:00 p.m. EDT. The attack on the consulate had already been under way
for 90 minutes at that time. Neither the president nor anyone else from
the White House called afterwards to check what was happening; the
Commander-in-Chief had left it “up to us,” said Panetta.

Panetta’s testimony directly contradicts
President Obama’s own claim to have issued “three directives” as soon
as he learned “what was going on” in Benghazi. As he told a Denver
reporter in October:

I gave three very clear directives. Number one, make sure we are
securing our personnel and that we are doing whatever we need to. Number
two, we are going to investigate exactly what happened and make sure it
doesn't happen again. Number three, find out who did this so we can
bring them to justice.

That same claim was subsequently repeated by other Democrats, including Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel,
who came to the president’s defense. But if those directives were
indeed given--and proof has never been produced--they were given long
after the attack, not while the attack was going on, during which time
the president did nothing.

Panetta and Dempsey also admitted,
under questioning by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), that they were not in touch
with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the attacks, and did not
receive a request for help from the State Department. Dempsey also
testified that he had been “surprised”
at Clinton’s testimony last month that she did not know of an urgent
cable from Ambassador Stevens last August about the dire security
situation.

So I guess Obama watched four men die afterwards and then constructed a vague, transparent and gradually released lie. As for Hillary Clinton lying, well, there is no surprise there.